Social Media & Me (a Gen X-er)

So I am a Social Media user.

I have been on Facebook since 2007, I have like over 450+ friends (most of which I picked up during my travelling days) and I probably LOOK at it on most days. I've also written a blog for a Spanish class, watched YouTube videos and relied on Wikipedia for information - basically only as required. I even created a profile in LinkedIn, and more recently registered with Pinterest and downloaded Spotify - but that's as far as I got.

Why? Because for the most part after spending all day in front of a computer, it's not something I want to do when I get home, unless it's to watch whatever TV show i'm into at the moment or film I've downloaded.  Even my Facebook time is pretty much limited to my mobile phone; when commuting or to put me to sleep once I turn off the light. I actually have to put an evening aside every now and again to go through my inbox(between the two of them I currently have 250 unread emails).

I also thought up until today that it was a Gen X thing but I've just found out that I am in the age group (and gender) with the most users according to this website (and the others which I came across). Although this site does go on to say that the 18-24 age group spend more time on there than the 25-34 year olds and that our biggest motivation is to stay in touch (I did say FB is the only one I use regularly).

http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2012/7704/age-not-gender-drives-most-social-media-use

But that's all about to change! Like it or not, right or wrong, SM is now very much a part of marketing and whilst I've covered many of the principles in previous classes, it's now time to embrace the different types of SM and better understand how they can be used in the art of marketing.

So essentially that is what my blog is going to be about; each week I'm going to embrace a new type of SM platform. I'm going to talk about my experience with it, look at what's happening out there with it but more importantly how it is or can be used as a marketing tool.

This week that new platform was Yammer which could simply be described as a Facebook Intranet, which like most intranet sites is closed to its members/employees and therefore not a place for advertising as such i.e. I personally don't think it would be ethical for Yammer to start selling advertising space 'a la Facebook' and posting it on the side bar of what is really a private forum. Or do you disagree???

That isn't to say that the internal productivity and company culture that Yammer promotes within an organisation 'a la Deloitte' couldn't be considered part of the marketing process too - anyone who took Strategic Brand Management will know what I'm referring to. If you haven't taken that class and you want me to expand on this just ask.

On the other hand sometimes company partnerships with member/employee benefits are promoted through intranet sites. So perhaps where these partnerships exist the company offering the benefits could be allowed to promote themselves on the company's Yammer feed e.g. a health club with centres around the world offers an exclusive benefit to Deloitte employees and is allowed to promote themselves and/or benefits on Deloitte's Yammer feed. By being allowed to promote on a company's Yammer feed the external company has access to a non-readily available channel but also one without the presence of competition. Perhaps a little far fetched but if the benefits they offer don't outweigh the channel benefits then it could be a win win for all. What do you think?